Christmas - December 25

Prayer Before the Manger Scene 

No one, whether shepherd or wise man, can approach God here below except by kneeling before the manger at Bethlehem and adoring him hidden in the weakness of a new-born child.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church #563)

"Lord Jesus, as I kneel before your manger in adoration, let my first Christmas word be: thank you.  Thank you, Gift of the Father, for coming to save me from my sins. 

Without you I do not know even how to be human.  The characteristics of your human body express the divine person of  God's Son.  And in that wondrous expression, Lord, you reveal me to myself...

How I long to be united with you in every way.  May I never be attracted to the allurements and charms of the world.  May I love you always, at every moment, with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.  May the tenderness, the dependency, and the mercy that you reveal in your infancy become the hallmarks of my life. 

Newborn Savior, the very silence of your Incarnation proclaims that the answer to the misery, the strife, and the meaninglessness of life cannot be found within us.  You alone are the Answer.  As I kneel before you, eternal King, I surrender to you all my selfishness, self-assertion, and self-exaltation.  As I adore you on this night of your birth, rid me of the nagging desire to be adored.  

Word become flesh, you make your dwelling among us.  Yet you do not live your life for yourself, but for us.  And you enable us to live in you all that you yourself lived.  Help me to embrace this truth with all my mind and heart.  Come and live your life in me.  Empty me of my willfulness, my petulance, my hardness, my cynicism, my contemptuousness.  Fill me with your truth, your strength, your fortitude, your purity, and your gentleness, your generosity, your wisdom, your heart, and your grace.  

O Emmanuel, may the assurance of your unfailing Presence be for me the source of unending peace.  May I never fear my weakness, my inadequacy, or my imperfection.  Rather, as I gaze with faith, hope, and love upon your incarnate littleness, may I love my own littleness, for God is with us.  Endow my life with a holy wonder that leads me ever more deeply into the Mystery of Redemption and the meaning of my vocation and destiny... 

May your Presence, Prince of Peace, bless the world with peace, the poor with care and prosperity, the despairing with hope and confidence, the grieving with comfort and gladness, the oppressed with freedom and deliverance, the suffering with solace and relief.  Loving Jesus, you are the only real joy of every human heart.  I place my trust in you.  

Oh. divine Fruit of Mary's womb, may I love you in union with the holy Mother of God.  May my life be filled with the obedience of Saint Joseph and the missionary fervor of the shepherds so that the witness of my life may shine like the star that leads the Magi to your manger.  I ask all this with great confidence in your holy name.  Amen."  (From The Magnificat Advent Companion 2013, Father Peter John Cameron, O.P.) 

Blessed Christmas Season from 

Lynn's Timeless Treasures

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Art

Nativity Triptych - Gerard David
Adoration of the Magi - Girolamo
Adoration of the Shepherds - Gerard van Honthorst

The Date of Christmas

Christmas a Christian Response
to the Pagan Winter Solstice

“The whole idea of celebrating [Jesus’] birth during the darkest part of the year is probably linked to pagan traditions and the winter solstice.”  (John Barton, Professor of the Interpretation of the Holy Scripture at Oriel College, Oxford University)

This statement made by Professor Barton could be used to demonstrate that the Catholic Church placed the date of Christmas around the winter solstice in order to Christianize the pagan tradition or create a Christian alternative to a pagan tradition. But what ready did come first, the celebration by the pagan’s of the winter solstice on December 25^th or the celebration of Jesus’ birth on December 25^th?    

According to an article in the December 23^rd OSV, “Taking a look at the pope’s new book on Jesus’ infancy” by Mark Shea, the evidence strongly suggests that Christmas was not placed on the 25^th in response to the pagan winter solstice.

Mark Shea writes, “According to William Tighe, a Church history specialist at Pennsylvania’s Muhlenberg College, “the pagan festival of the ‘Birth of the Unconquered Sun’ instituted by the Roman Emperor Aurelian on 25 December 274, was almost certainly an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance to Roman Christians.  Thus the ‘pagan origins of Christmas’ is a myth without historical substance.”

Winter Solstice a Pagan Response
to Christian Christmas

One of the earliest to affix a date to Jesus’ birth was Christian theologian of the late 2^nd century Clement of Alexandria who wrote, “From the birth of Christ, to the death of Commodus are, in all, a hundred and ninety-four years, one month, thirteen days.”  Commodus was a Roman emperor who died on December 31, 192. 

Clement an Egyptian most likely used the Egyptian calendar, not the Roman, which would set the date as January 6, 2BC, the common date used by the Eastern Church for Christmas.

There was also a tradition amongst the Jewish people at the time of Christ that a true prophet died on the same date as his birth or conception.

Western Christians placed the date of Christ’s crucifixion (and therefore of his conception) as March 25^th (feast of the Annunciation of the Lord), Eastern Christians placed the date on April 6^th.  Thus the birth of Christ follows nine months later, December 25^th in the West or January 6^th in the East. 

Christian theologian Hippolytus of Rome in a commentary on the Book of Daniel wrote in the early 3^rd century,  “The first coming of our Lord, that in the flesh, in which he was born at Bethlehem, took place eight days before the Kalends of January.”  The Kalends was the first day of the month; it is also where we get the word calendar.  Eight days before the Kalends of January would be December 25^th.

Both Clement and Hippolytus wrote before Aurelian created his festival for the winter solstice on December 25^th in 274 the late 3^rd century.  So which came first the celebration by the pagan’s of the winter solstice on December 25^th or the celebration of Jesus’ birth on December 25^th?  The Christian tradition of Christ’s birth on December 25^th came first with Aurelian’s feast of the Unconquered Sun an attempt to create a pagan alternative.   

Blessed Christmas Season from
Lynn’s Timeless Treasures Catholic Gifts

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Art
Nativity - Rogier van der Weyden
Nativity - Giovanni Battista Tiempolo